Hair condition determining device and method for providing hair condition information

ABSTRACT

In various exemplary embodiments a hair condition determining device and a method for providing hair condition information may be provided. The device may comprise a first area and a second area configured in such a way that hairs of a user are movable between the first area and the second area, wherein in the first area at least one optical sensor for detecting light of a light source is positioned, wherein the second area includes at least one carrier, and wherein the first area and the second area are coupled by employing a connecting element in such a way that the first area and the second area face each other in such a way that a sensor main measuring direction of the at least one sensor is aligned at a predefined angle to a surface of the carrier.

CROSS-REFERENCE TO RELATED APPLICATION

This application is a U.S. National-Stage entry under 35 U.S.C. § 371based on International Application No. PCT/EP2018/083912, filed Dec. 7,2018, which was published under PCT Article 21(2) and which claimspriority to German Application No. 10 2017 222 421.5, filed Dec. 11,2017, which are all hereby incorporated in their entirety by reference.

TECHNICAL FIELD

The present disclosure concerns a hair condition determining device anda method of providing hair condition information.

BACKGROUND

In many areas of daily life, there has been a trend for some timetowards personalized programs that can respond specifically toindividual requirements and needs, for example in the nutrition orhealth sector, but also in the area of personalized cosmetics. This canenable a user to find specific cosmetic products and/or careinstructions that are tailored to the individual needs of his or herhair, thus enabling a particularly high degree of effectiveness.

In particular, young hairdressers do not yet have sound experience indealing with damaged hair, for example, which care product orcombination of care products would be appropriate for treating damagedhair. In particular, a great deal of experience is also required toachieve a successful hair coloring experience with damaged hair and toknow how hair coloring products must be mixed to achieve the desiredcoloring result, even with damaged hair.

When treating hair with cosmetic products, the effect of the product,e.g. the intensity of a coloring, the effectiveness of a care product orthe hair reshaping effect of a permanent wave, may depend strongly onthe hair condition, especially the degree of damage to the hair.

Therefore, a precise determination of a hair color and a degree ofdamage to the hair may be of great importance and represent importantparameters for the user to (objectively) assess his hair health.

For many people who want to have healthy and well cared for hair, themoisture content of their hair is an important hair parameter.

Furthermore, there is a need for a device for the acquisition of haircondition information, which enables non-destructive measurement,especially on the living hair of a person.

Furthermore, there is a need for a device for recording hair conditioninformation, which may be controlled intuitively with one hand of a userand which makes it easy for the user to record the hair conditioninformation with the device.

Furthermore, there is a need for a device for the acquisition of haircondition information, which allows a simple and fast calibration of atleast one sensor, which is used for the acquisition of hair conditioninformation.

BRIEF SUMMARY

Devices and methods for detecting a hair condition of a user areprovided. In an exemplary embodiment, a device for detecting the haircondition includes a first area and a second are configured to allow auser's hair to move therebetween. The first area includes at least oneoptical sensor for detecting light from a light source, and the secondarea includes a carrier. The first and second areas are coupled by aconnecting element such that the first and second areas are oppositeeach other with a sensor main measuring direction of the at least onesensor oriented at a predefined angle to a surface of the carrier.

A method for detecting a hair condition is provided in anotherembodiment. The method includes the steps of moving a hair conditiondetermining device along a user's hair at a predefined distance from thehair, and illuminating the hair with a light source. Duringillumination, a portion of the light that has interacted with the hairis detected with at least one first sensor. A degree of hair damage isdetected utilizing a second sensor. A movement pattern of the haircondition determining device in space is detected utilizing anacceleration sensor, and an electronic circuit device processes detectedhair condition information based on the detected movement pattern.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The present disclosure will hereinafter be described in conjunction withthe following drawing figures, wherein like numerals denote likeelements, and wherein:

FIG. 1 is a schematic side view of a hair condition determining devicefor providing hair condition information according to differentexemplary embodiments;

FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of a hair condition determiningdevice for providing hair condition information according to differentexemplary embodiments;

FIGS. 3 a, 3 b, and 3 c are exemplary operations of a hair conditiondetermining device for providing hair condition information according todifferent exemplary embodiments; and

FIG. 4 is an exemplary flow chart of a method for providing haircondition information according to different exemplary embodiments.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

The following detailed description is merely exemplary in nature and isnot intended to limit the disclosure or the application and uses of thesubject matter as described herein. Furthermore, there is no intentionto be bound by any theory presented in the preceding background or thefollowing detailed description.

Damage to the hair may be caused by natural or man-made processes. Themost important type of damage may be oxidative damage.

The natural processes may, for example, have a combined (e.g.simultaneous) effect of UV light and oxygen (O₂) on the hair.

The man-made processes may include, for example, the application of hairdyes (also known as coloration, which includes bleaching), and/orstyling or reshaping of the hair (e.g. creating a perm).

In addition to desired cosmetic effects, such as a lightening of thehair, the hair may also be severely damaged, for example when usingoxidizing agents.

For example, the cysteic acid content of damaged hair may be increaseddue to an oxidation of the amino acids cystine and cysteine to cysteicacid, which are very abundant in hair.

The oxidation of cystine/cysteine to cysteic acid can destroy themechanical stability of the hair and even lead to complete hair breakageif used several times. However, macroscopically perceptible, e.g.tactile, properties of the hair, e.g. a surface texture, e.g. a surfaceroughness, may be negatively influenced even before this. Damaged hair,for example, may have a higher surface roughness than undamaged hair.

Results of cosmetic treatments may depend on other properties of thetreated hair, such as hair color (especially in the case of coloring),hair structure (especially in the case of styling, e.g. perming,straightening, etc.), moisture content (in the case of a care product),etc.

In various exemplary embodiments, a hair condition determining device isprovided which makes it possible to determine a user's hair condition byemploying at least one optical sensor. The determination of the haircondition may be carried out in different exemplary embodiments during abrushing or picking up of hair by employing the hair conditiondetermining device, i.e. the hair condition determining device may beset up in such a way that a guiding option for hair may be realized.

In various exemplary embodiments, successive measurements made along ahair sample may be used to determine the condition and development overa time axis, e.g. to determine an area of damage or change.

In different exemplary embodiments, a recommendation may be providedbased on the determined hair condition, e.g. regarding a cosmetic hairtreatment product, a composition of a hair treatment product and/or ahair treatment recommendation.

In various exemplary embodiments, a hair condition determining deviceand a method described herein may be provided as part of a “Smart Salon”system, which is a holistic system comprising a plurality of intelligentsmart devices, which may provide identification and advice towards theprovision of at least one hair treatment product to improve a user'shair condition and/or desired hair color.

An optical sensor is herein understood to be a sensor which, byemploying optical elements, conducts electromagnetic radiation in thewave range of visible and invisible light, in the broader senseshort-wave radiation (UV light), visible light (also abbreviated asVIS), long-wave radiation such as near infrared light (NIR) and/orinfrared light (IR)), and which is detected, recorded, analyzed andfurther processed by employing a detector (e.g. an electronic detector,e.g. for visible light, for NIR and/or IR light, a photometer or thelike), especially on the basis of spectroscopic methods for infraredradiation.

In this context, reference can be made to “the sensors”, for examplewith regard to a data transmission between the sensors and the dataprocessing device, a set-up of the sensors, etc. This is to beunderstood as meaning that the sensors may comprise a set of sensorsand/or sensor circuits located in or on the body of the device, e.g. aset of optical sensor(s) (e.g. spectrometer, camera, microscope),microphone(s), speed sensor circuit(s), etc., or, where this is apparentfrom the context, part of the said sensors and/or sensor circuits.

In various exemplary embodiments, the optical sensor may be a nearinfrared (NIR) sensor, e.g. a NIR spectrometer or a NIR camera, whichmay be set up to detect hair damage and/or moisture content.

In various exemplary embodiments, the detection may be carried out byabsorption, reflection and spectroscopy, whereby the respective methodsto be carried out may be evaluated by employing a mobile or portabledata processing device and/or may be evaluated by employing a networksoftware (cloud), in order to do justice to the complexity of thespectroscopy evaluation, for example.

In various exemplary embodiments, the hair condition determining devicemay comprise at least one (N)IR spectrometer and/or one (N)IR/VISspectrometer, as they are installed in the spectrometers mentionedbelow.

In various exemplary embodiments, for example, the “MicroNIR® OnSite” byViavi Solutions Inc. may be provided as a suitable spectrometer invarious exemplary embodiments. The spectrometer may detect and/ordetermine a measurement with a measurement duration in a range of about0.10 s (seconds) to about 5 s, for example in a range of about 1 s toabout 3 s, for example of about 2 s, at least one recording of the nearinfrared and/or infrared spectra of hair of a consumer in almost realtime. In various exemplary embodiments, the spectrometer may include atleast one integrated vacuum tungsten lamp and an InGaAs photo diodearray with 128 pixels. In various exemplary embodiments, the “MicroNIR®OnSite” may operate in a wavelength range from about 6060 cm⁻¹ to about10526 cm⁻¹.

In various exemplary embodiments, a spectrometer “i-Spec™ Nano” by B&WTek may be used. In various exemplary embodiments, the spectrometer mayinclude a light source and operate in a wavelength range from about 4545cm⁻¹ to about 7692 cm⁻¹.

In various exemplary embodiments, a NIR/VIS spectrometer “QualitySpec®Trek” by ASD Inc. may be used and in various exemplary embodiments, thespectrometer may operate in a wavelength range from about 28571 cm⁻¹ toabout 400 cm⁻¹ (from about 350-2500 nm).

In various exemplary embodiments, a spectrometer may be the “SCiO™ byConsumer Physics”. The spectrometer may operate in the shortwave rangeof the NIR at wavelengths from about 9090 cm⁻¹ to about 14285 cm⁻¹ (fromabout 700 to about 1100 nm).

In various exemplary embodiments, a spectrometer by Attonics Systems maybe used, which may operate either in the wavelength ranges from about9090 cm⁻¹ to about 26,315 cm⁻¹ (VIS-NIR) or from about 3333 cm⁻¹ toabout 10,000 cm⁻¹ (NIR). In various exemplary embodiments, thespectrometer may be based on interferometers and may offer a high lightthroughput and a high spectral resolution (smaller than about 5 nm forVIS-NIR spectrometers and larger than about 20 nm for the NIRspectrometer). In various exemplary embodiments, the spectrometer mayinclude a Multi-Phase Shift Array (MPA) chip and an optical set-up in acircular tube.

In various exemplary embodiments, the miniature spectrometers“USB2000-VIS-NIR” or “USB4000-VIS-NIR” by Ocean Optics may be used. Invarious exemplary embodiments, the spectrometer may operate in awavelength range from about 350 nm to about 1000 nm.

In various exemplary embodiments, a NIR evaluation module “DLP® NIRscan”or “DLP® NIRscan Nano” by Texas Instruments may be used. In variousexemplary embodiments, the evaluation module includes two tungsten lampsand InGaAs photo diodes as detectors. In various exemplary embodiments,the “DLP® NIRscan” module may operate in a wavelength range from about4016 cm⁻¹ to about 7407 cm⁻¹ and the “DLP® NIRscan Nano” module in arange from about 5882 cm⁻¹ to about 11,111 cm⁻¹.

In various exemplary embodiments, the “NeoSpectra™” by Si-Ware Systemsmay be used as a further suitable NIR sensor, for example theNeoSpectra™ SW62221-1.7 sensor, the NeoSpectra™ SW62221-2.1 sensor andthe NeoSpectra™ SW62221-2.5 sensor, which can operate in differentwavelength ranges.

In various exemplary embodiments the optical sensor may be a sensor forvisible light, e.g. a spectrometer or a camera for a spectral range ofvisible light, especially in a range where fluorescent light is emittedby hair. The optical sensor may be set up to detect hair damage.

The optical sensor for visible light or a further sensor for visiblelight, e.g. a spectrometer or a color camera, may be set up in variousexemplary embodiments to determine the initial hair color of the user.In a case where the camera (or an additional camera) is provided, it mayalso be used to determine a hair density.

The optical sensor to detect hair damage (NIR or fluorescent light) maybe provided in the hair condition determining device.

In various exemplary embodiments, a combination of several of the abovementioned sensors may be used to obtain a more comprehensive picture ofthe hair condition. The detection of two or more hair conditionparameters may be understood as a two-dimensional or multi-dimensionalmeasurement, which may be used to improve an analysis result regardingthe hair condition.

In various exemplary embodiments, the hair condition determining devicemay take the desired result into account when determining therecommendation, e.g. of the hair treatment product, in such a way thatthe recommended product and/or hair treatment is suitable to achieve thedesired result on the user's hair.

In various exemplary embodiments, another conventional input device maybe provided alternatively or additionally as an input device on the haircondition determining device, e.g. keys, a touch-sensitive screen, etc.In various exemplary embodiments, the hair condition determining devicemay have an output device for outputting the hair condition informationand/or the recommendation, e.g. a loudspeaker and/or a display, or lightindicators such as LEDs in different colors or numbers, which aredirectly visible or illuminate a symbol/icon.

In various exemplary embodiments, the hair condition determining devicemay be part of a hair condition determining system which may furthercomprise at least one display device which may be used as an outputdevice for the hair condition information and/or the recommendation.

For the direct or indirect determination of the hair condition and, ifapplicable, for the direct or indirect determination of therecommendation (e.g. of the hair treatment product and/or the hairtreatment recommendation), the device or the system in various exemplaryembodiments may include a data processing device.

In various exemplary embodiments, e.g. if the display device is asmartphone, tablet or similar, the display device may also be used as aninput device and/or as an external data processing device.

In various exemplary embodiments, data and/or experience values of(further) users who may have a similar hair condition (e.g. a similardegree of damage and/or a similar hair color) and possibly a similarprofile (age, gender, lifestyle, hair type, etc.) may be taken intoaccount when determining the recommendation. A broad set of data and/orexperience may be used to optimize the result. The system may bedesigned as a learning system.

In various exemplary embodiments, the hair condition determining devicemay be configured to transmit a current hair damage condition, which mayhave been detected by employing the NIR sensor, for example, and acurrent hair color of a user, by employing visible light or UV lightmeasurement, for example, which may have been detected by employing thecolor sensor, from the hair condition determining device to a hairtreatment product mixing device, which may determine an individual hairtreatment product composition and provide the user with a correspondinghair treatment product, for example a shampoo or a cure.

In various exemplary embodiments a standardized and objective evaluationof the treatment result may be made possible using the hair conditiondetermining device. For this purpose, the optical sensor included in thedevice and possibly other sensors may be used to determine the haircondition of a consumer after following the recommendation, e.g. afterapplying the recommended product and/or after carrying out therecommended treatment.

This enables continuous and, if necessary, frequent measurements ofreliable hair damage values and may enable the user or the consumer tomonitor the health and/or care status of their hair over time and to bestrengthened in their belief that the treatment will be successful.

In various exemplary embodiments, the hair condition determining devicemay be set up in such a way that the optical sensor may be used toprecisely determine the degree of oxidative hair damage by determining acysteic acid content. The optical sensor may be set up to take one ormore images in a near infrared (NIR) range.

In various exemplary embodiments the optical sensor may be a VIS sensor,which may determine hair damage by employing fluorescence.

In various exemplary embodiments, the near infrared range may be awavelength range in which damaged hair has absorption structures, e.g.in which cysteic acid absorbs light.

Undamaged hair may typically contain cysteic acid in a range of about0.5% to about 1% (by weight). In the presence of damage, for example asa result of multiple ultra-bleaching and/or other damage mechanisms, thecysteic acid content may rise to over about 15% (by weight).

In various exemplary embodiments, this property is used to quantify thedegree of damage to the hair as a cysteic acid content.

In various exemplary embodiments, damaged hair may show an inherentfluorescence, which is used to determine the degree of damage bymeasuring the fluorescence intensity of the hair.

In various exemplary embodiments, the hair may be exposed to UV light(e.g. light in a wavelength range from about 315 nm to about 380 nm)using the light source to determine the fluorescence intensity of thehair. For this purpose, the sensor device may be equipped with a UVlight source. The UV light source may be a UV LED or another suitablelight source which is small enough to be accommodated in the deviceand/or in the first area of the device.

During exposure, fluorescent light emitted by the hair may beregistered. The fluorescence intensity may be determined from theregistered light. The degree of damage to the hair may then bedetermined by taking into account the fluorescence intensity of thehair.

Accordingly, the optical sensor may be sensitive at least in thefluorescence wavelength range. The optical sensor may include or be acamera, a photometer, a colorimeter and/or a spectrometer. In variousexemplary embodiments, a filter may be placed between the hair and theoptical sensor.

Thanks to technological progress in recent years, optical sensors (forthe visible wavelength range or for the NIR or IR range) can now beprovided which are small enough to be accommodated in an enclosure ofthe device.

In various exemplary embodiments, e.g. in a case where the opticalsensor, e.g. a detector of the optical sensor and/or optical componentslike a dispersing element of a spectrometer or similar, requires morespace than is available near the hair, at least one light guide devicemay be provided. The space-requiring component (e.g. the light sourceand/or the detector) may be positioned at a part of the hair conditiondetermining device which provides more space, and the at least one lightguide device may be designed to guide light (e.g. the light forilluminating the hair or the light which has interacted with the hair)between the component and an entry or exit point of the light on theenclosure of the device. Conventional structures known for this purpose,e.g. optical fibers, optical channels, mirrors and/or other opticalelements, etc., may be used as light guide devices, whereby it must beensured that any light-transmitting material used is light-transmittingfor the wavelength range to be guided, e.g. in the case of NIR light forthe NIR wavelength range up to about 2.5 μm.

In various exemplary embodiments, the near infrared (NIR) and/orinfrared (IR) spectrum may be obtained, for example, by employing ATR(near) infrared spectroscopy (“Attenuated Total Reflection”). Byapplying mathematical models, a mathematical model may be created bymeasuring calibration hair samples, which have a cysteic acid contentdetermined by a known analytical method.

When analyzing an NIR or IR spectrum, or at least part of it, recordedon the hair of a consumer or a user, the model may be used to calculatethe cysteic acid content of various exemplary embodiments, and thus thehair damage. An analysis of at least a part of the spectrum and anapplication of the model may be carried out by employing the dataprocessing device, for example (with suitable apps) by employing knownsmartphones, tablets or similar.

The light source in various exemplary embodiments may be an NIR lightsource or/and an IR light source for exposing the hair to NIR or IRlight.

The determination of the degree of damage to hair may be carried outaccording to various exemplary embodiments either by using thenear-infrared range, i.e. by irradiating the hair with the near-infraredlight and spectral analysis of at least part of the NIR light after ithas interacted with the hair, or by using the infrared range, i.e. byusing the infrared light by irradiating the hair with infrared light andspectral analysis of at least part of the IR light after it hasinteracted with the hair, or using both the near infrared and infraredranges, i.e. by irradiating the hair with near infrared and infraredlight and spectral analysis of at least part of the NIR and at leastpart of the IR light after it has interacted with the hair.

In various exemplary embodiments, a measured near-infrared (NIR) rangemay show wavelengths from about 12,500 cm⁻¹ to about 4000 cm⁻¹, e.g.from about 5022 cm⁻¹ to about 4020 cm⁻¹. This wavelength range may showcharacteristic overtone and combination oscillations of e.g. CH, OH andNH groups.

In various exemplary embodiments, at least part of the near infraredand/or infrared light may show an (infrared) wave number range fromabout 1100 cm⁻¹ to about 1000 cm⁻¹, e.g. about 1040 cm⁻¹. Among otherthings, the relevant absorption bands of the component to be analyzed,cysteic acid may be found here.

In various exemplary embodiments, a calibration model may be createdusing the results of a quantitative computer-assisted evaluation (alsoreferred to as chemometric analysis) for a plurality of calibration hairsamples in combination with values for a cysteic acid content of therespective calibration hair sample obtained by an independent method,e.g. by high-pressure liquid chromatography, for the same calibrationhair samples.

Once the calibration model is available, the concentration of cysteicacid (as a measure of hair damage) may be calculated very easily for thehair to be measured in various exemplary embodiments from the spectra incomparison with the calibration spectra, using the (N)IR spectrumrecorded for the hair.

In various exemplary embodiments, suitable mathematical models ofpredictive analytics may be used to quantify the cysteic acid content(e.g. by fluorescence analysis and/or (N)IR spectroscopy) or the degreeof damage.

In various exemplary embodiments, a method is provided which is simplein use and which enables a precise determination of the degree ofoxidative damage to hair by employing fluorescence detection and/or bydetection of absorption and methods from predictive analysis.

In various exemplary embodiments, a mobile or portable data processingdevice may be used to provide the determined hair conditions or therecommendation. As a portable data processing device, a smartphone, aniPad®, a tablet or laptop may be used.

In various exemplary embodiments, a method may be provided which, byemploying a simple image analytical method, which can be determined forexample by using a simple device (e.g. a UV LED, a white light, NIRand/or IR illuminating device, a filter, a portable NIR sensor, aportable (NIR and/or VIS) spectrometer, possibly in connection with amobile data processing device (e.g. a smartphone or tablet) and, ifapplicable, a predictive analytics method, provides informationregarding a user's hair condition and, if applicable, a recommendationbased thereon.

According to various exemplary embodiments, predictive analytics may useat least one method from a group of methods, the group of methodscomprising linear or multi-linear regression, polynomial regression,neural network method, support vector machine method, decision treesmethod (“decision trees”, “random forest”, “tree ensembles”) and othermethods.

By using an acceleration sensor, it may be possible in various exemplaryembodiments, to determine a position of the hair condition determiningdevice. For example, an acceleration sensor may be used to determine thebeginning and/or end of a hair condition detection process. Assumingthat a hair condition detection process typically starts at the hairlineand ends at the hair tips, a spatially resolved determination, e.g.hairline/middle area/tips, of the hair condition information, hair colorand associated hair damage may be possible, possibly in combination witha speed determined by employing the acceleration sensor at which thehair condition determining device is moved.

In the context of this application, the accelerometer feature mayinclude a ‘classical’ motion sensor or a gyroscopic sensor.

Data transmission from the hair condition determining device to anexternal data processing device and/or to an external storage device maybe done in various exemplary embodiments via cable or via known radiodata transmission standards (e.g. Bluetooth, Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE),WLAN, Wi-Fi, NFC, etc.).

In various exemplary embodiments, the hair condition determining devicefor providing hair condition information may include a first area and asecond area configured in such a way that hair of a user is movablebetween the first area and the second area, wherein in the first area atleast one optical sensor for detecting light of a light source islocated. The hair condition determining device is configured in such away that the hair of a user is movable between the first area and thesecond area, wherein the second area comprises at least one carrier, andwherein the first area and the second area are coupled by employing aconnecting element such that the first area and the second area faceeach other such that a main sensor measuring direction of the at leastone sensor is oriented at a predefined angle to a surface of thecarrier.

In various exemplary embodiments, the hair condition determining devicemay be operated by a user with one hand. With one hand, the user mayexpose at least one hair or strand of hair and hold the hair under atensile load on the exposed hair, which is even more comfortable for thecustomer, and with the other hand guide the hair condition determiningdevice along the exposed hair.

In various exemplary embodiments, the user may move the hair conditiondetermining device with one hand according to a predefined pattern ofmovement in space in order to control at least one action of the haircondition determining device with one hand, e.g. to perform a storageprocess of a just measured hair color and/or a just measured degree ofhair damage, for example to perform an erasure process of a hair colorand/or a degree of hair damage which has just been determined and/orstored in a storage device and/or a degree of hair damage which has justbeen determined and/or stored in a storage device, for example toperform a data transmission process of a hair color and/or a degree ofhair damage which has just been determined and/or stored in a storagedevice from the hair condition determining device to an external dataprocessing device.

In various exemplary embodiments, an electronic circuit device may beset up to detect by employing an acceleration sensor whether a haircondition determining device has not been used for a long period of timeand then to put the hair condition determining device into a standbymode.

In various exemplary embodiments, an electronic circuit device may beconfigured to detect by employing an acceleration sensor whether a haircondition determining device has not been used for a prolonged period oftime and is currently being used and then to set the hair conditiondetermining device into an active mode. In various exemplaryembodiments, for example, depending on the frequency of movement of thehair condition determining device, switching off the color sensor and/orthe hair damage sensor may be realized by employing a circuit device inorder to reduce the power consumption of the hair condition determiningdevice in a standby mode.

In various exemplary embodiments, the connecting element may comprise anelastic material. In various exemplary embodiments the elastic materialis exemplified by the fact that it is repeatedly deformable when a forceis applied and returns to its original initial state when the force isremoved.

In various exemplary embodiments, the connecting element may have athickness or material thickness in a range from about 2 mm to about 20mm.

In various exemplary embodiments, the connecting element may comprise abent flat steel with a width in a range of about 5 mm to about 30 mm.

In various exemplary embodiments, the connecting element may comprise aspring steel, for example X10CrNi18-8,38Si7, 61SiCr7, 52CrMoV4, 51CrV4,C67E/C67S or other spring steels known to the expert for suchapplications.

In various exemplary embodiments, the connecting element may include astainless spring steel.

In various exemplary embodiments, the elastic connecting material may bedesigned with a matte and/or matte coated finish, which may allow alight emitted by a light source to be reflected only slightly or in apredefined range and minimize a negative influence on at least onesensor.

In various exemplary embodiments, the connecting element may have aU-shaped configuration and the first area and the second area may eachbe positioned at an end area of the U-shaped configuration.

In various exemplary embodiments, the connecting element may comprise astop limitation near and/or adjacent to the second area, the stoplimitation being designed so that, if the connecting element iscompressed by employing hand muscle force, excessive force loading bythe carrier and/or the calibration material on a sensor front side maybe avoided.

In various exemplary embodiments, at least one calibration medium may belocated on an area of the surface of the carrier facing the first area,the calibration medium being configured to calibrate at least one sensorof the device.

In various exemplary embodiments, the design of the device may allow thecalibration medium to be part of the device and thus no additionalcalibration medium is required for at least one calibration procedure.

In various exemplary embodiments, it may be possible that thecalibration medium is already attached to the device so as to prevent acalibration medium not being available when the device is used in mobileapplications, so that calibration would not be possible. In variousexemplary embodiments, it may be possible to ensure that a calibrationmedium that is physically connected to the device is available at anylocation where the device is to be calibrated and that no externalcalibration medium is required.

In various exemplary embodiments, the calibration medium or a surface ofthe calibration medium may be positioned perpendicularly or at apredefined angle to a main measuring direction of the at least onesensor when performing a calibration. In various exemplary embodiments,the predefined angle may be in a range from about 70 degrees to about110 degrees, for example in a range from about 85 degrees to about 95degrees.

In various exemplary embodiments, a lateral distance of a verticalcentral axis of the calibration medium to a vertical central axis orlongitudinal axis of at least one sensor may lie in a predefined range,for example in a range from about 20 mm to 0 mm, for example in a rangefrom about 10 mm to 0 mm.

In various exemplary embodiments, the calibration medium may be used asa reference calibration medium to calibrate the color sensor and/or thehair condition sensor.

In various exemplary embodiments, a material of the carrier and/or theceramic may be kept in the color white or in a white shade to allow ahigh reflection of light. In various exemplary embodiments, the ceramicmaterial or the ceramic substance may comprise a glass ceramic and/orleucite-reinforced glass ceramic. In various exemplary embodiments, aleucite-reinforced glass-ceramic may comprise a glass phase and aleucite-type crystal phase. In various exemplary embodiments, thematerial may be based, for example, on the three-component system SiO₂,Al₂O₃ and K₂O.

In various exemplary embodiments, the ceramic material used may be forexample ALOTEC® 92. In various exemplary embodiments, ALOTEC® 92 may beused with an Al₂O₃ content of greater than or equal to about 92 mass %,a density of greater than about 3.64 g/cm³, an open porosity of about 0vol %, a modulus of elasticity of greater than about 300, a bendingstiffness (four-point) of greater than about 320 MPa, a Weibull modulusof about 14 m, a fracture toughness of about 3 to about 4 MPam^(V2), ahardness of greater than about 12 HV(1), a coefficient of thermalexpansion of about 7.5 10⁻⁶K⁻¹, a roughness “as fired” of about 1.9 μmand a roughness “polished” of about 0.3 μm. It goes without saying,however, that other suitable ceramic materials may be used instead ofALOTEC® 92.

In various exemplary embodiments, when producing a glass-ceramicstarting from viscous glass, the form may first be produced and in asubsequent tempering step, i.e. a method for increasing the stability ofthe ceramic, the previously amorphous volume may be crystallized in atargeted manner by the targeted use of temperature changes. Such systemsare exemplified by high mechanical strength and good thermal shockresistance. In various exemplary embodiments it is possible to combinethe positive optical properties of glass with the positive mechanicalproperties of ceramics by using a leucite-reinforced glass-ceramic ascalibration medium.

In various exemplary embodiments, the NIR sensor may be set to acalibration mode during a calibration process using the calibrationmedium after the NIR sensor has been activated. In various exemplaryembodiments, the calibration medium may then be brought to the NIRsensor at a predefined distance from the NIR sensor. In variousexemplary embodiments, the calibration medium may be positioned directlyin front of or directly against a main measuring surface of the colorsensor and/or the NIR sensor during a calibration process of the NIRsensor. In various exemplary embodiments, the NIR sensor may thenirradiate the calibration medium, for example a ceramic, by employing aninfrared source (IR source) and measure a reflection (and thus also anabsorption) of the reflected infrared rays. In various exemplaryembodiments the NIR sensor may then generate an internal calibrationprofile for all further measurements.

In various exemplary embodiments, the color sensor may include aself-calibrating sensor. In various exemplary embodiments, the colorsensor may optionally be calibrated using the calibration medium.

In various exemplary embodiments, the color sensor may be set to acalibration mode during a calibration process using the calibrationmedium after the color sensor has been activated. In various exemplaryembodiments, the calibration medium may then be positioned at apredefined distance from the color sensor, e.g. by using the user'smuscle power. In various exemplary embodiments, the calibration mediummay be positioned directly in front of or directly against a mainmeasuring surface of the color sensor during a calibration process ofthe color sensor. In various exemplary embodiments, the color sensor maythen irradiate the calibration medium, for example a ceramic, byemploying an infrared source (IR source) and measure a reflection of thereflected light rays. In various exemplary embodiments, the color sensormay then generate an internal calibration profile for all furthermeasurements. In various exemplary embodiments, a calibration of aself-calibrating color sensor may be necessary as an option for bettercalibration of the light source for particularly precise measurements.

In various exemplary embodiments a calibration procedure may besimplified by using the calibration medium as part of the device.

In various exemplary embodiments, the calibration medium or the carriermay also be set up as a clamping device and/or guiding aid, so that aconsumer's hair may be guided in the direction of the measuring sensors.In other words, in various exemplary embodiments, the carrier and/or thecalibration medium may be guided towards the at least one sensor byemploying a user's hand muscle force in order to be able to perform ameasurement at the at least one sensor at a predefined distance, forexample in a range from about 0 mm to about 10 mm, for example in arange from about 2 mm to about 8 mm, for example in a range of about 3mm, between the carrier or the calibration medium and the at least onesensor.

In various exemplary embodiments, the calibration medium may be orinclude a ceramic material.

In various exemplary embodiments it may be possible to use the ceramicto maintain a constant background behind the hairs of a consumer, sothat repeatable or reproducible measurements may be achieved with thehair condition determining device.

In various exemplary embodiments, the calibration medium may be aceramic plate which is applied to a carrier.

In various exemplary embodiments, the first area may comprise a colorsensor for detecting a user's hair color and/or hair damage via UV lightby employing absorption or reflection and a hair condition sensor fordetecting a user's hair condition, wherein the color sensor detects auser's hair color at a first time and the hair condition sensor detectsa degree of hair damage and/or hair moisture content of the user at asecond time, and wherein the first time and the second time lie in apredefined time range.

In various exemplary embodiments, the first range may further comprise ahaptic signal generator (vibrator).

In various exemplary embodiments, the color sensor may be configured todetect a user's current hair color.

In various exemplary embodiments the color sensor may be a high-endmulti-band sensor or color sensor with high bandwidth or amulti-spectral color sensor.

In various exemplary embodiments, a color sensor with high bandwidthand/or extended wave spectrum for detection may be set up to provideadditional color information in addition to the color spectrum perceivedby the human eye for further analysis and calculation of care andcoloration products.

In various exemplary embodiments, a multi-channel color measurement withtransformation into a representation space, for example a CIE LAB orinto other representation spaces known to the expert, may be realized byemploying the color sensor.

In various exemplary embodiments, an L*a*b* color space may beunderstood as a color space containing all colors in adevice-independent form. By employing a transfer of color values intothe L*a*b* color space, the loss-free conversion of color informationfrom one color system to another, from one type of device to another,may therefore be realized in various exemplary embodiments.

In various exemplary embodiments, the predefined time range may be inthe range of about 10 ms (milliseconds) to about 1000 ms, for example.In various exemplary embodiments, the first time may be in a range ofabout 20 ms to about 50 ms and the second time in a range of about 50 msto about 250 ms and vice versa. In various exemplary embodiments, ameasurement may be carried out by employing the hair condition sensorand shortly afterwards by employing the color sensor. In variousexemplary embodiments, the measurements may be carried out so closelyone after the other that they may be performed at approximately the sametime.

In various exemplary embodiments, a first measured result may beprocessed with the color sensor and a second measured result with thehair condition sensor and/or a third measured result with theacceleration sensor at least jointly in one cycle, for example a storagecycle of the electronic circuit device, and/or may be combined to form adata package which may be stored, for example by employing the circuitdevice, in the storage device of the hair condition determining deviceand/or in an external storage device and/or in an external dataprocessing device by employing a wireless connection.

In various exemplary embodiments, the color sensor may be set up todetect a current hair color of a consumer.

In various exemplary embodiments, the first area or the second area mayfurther comprise an acceleration sensor.

In various exemplary embodiments, the term acceleration sensor may referto an acceleration meter, accelerometer, B-meter or G-sensor.

In various exemplary embodiments, the acceleration may be measured orindicated in the SI unit m·s⁻² (meter per second squared).

In various exemplary embodiments, the acceleration sensor may be set upto detect a movement and/or a speed of a forward movement of the haircondition determining device by one user.

In various exemplary embodiments, the acceleration sensor may beconfigured to detect a movement and/or a speed of a forward movement ofthe hair condition determining device by a user, for example whendifferent hair areas of the hair are measured by employing the haircondition determining device, to detect an instantaneous position of thehair condition determining device with respect to the hair, for examplewith respect to a hair beginning or a hair end, and/or to detect adirection of movement and/or a speed of movement of the hair conditiondetermining device.

In various exemplary embodiments, the accelerometer may be set up todetect a movement condition of the device in space. In various exemplaryembodiments, the use of an acceleration sensor in addition to othersensors, for example a color sensor and a hair condition sensor, allowsthe hair condition determining device to be operated with one hand bycontrolling the operation of the hair condition determining device byemploying a physical movement and gesture control.

In various exemplary embodiments, the acceleration sensor may be set upto detect a predefined “back and forth” movement and/or swivel movementand/or “shake” movement and/or “shake out” movement and/or “point”movement of the hair condition determining device and/or compare it witha predefined movement pattern and/or assign a movement to a knownmovement pattern.

In various exemplary embodiments, after picking up the device andremoving the device from a charging station and then holding the deviceupright, the acceleration sensor may be set up to detect the verticalalignment of the device, wherein a circuit device is set up to comparethe measurement result with predefined known movement patterns based onat least one measurement result of the acceleration sensor and todetermine a predefined movement pattern corresponding to the movementand to switch on or wake up the device.

In various exemplary embodiments, when the device is held vertically andthe device is shaken, the acceleration sensor may be set up to detectthe vertical alignment of the device and the shaking, wherein a circuitdevice may be set up to compare the measurement result with predefinedknown movement patterns based on at least one measurement result of theacceleration sensor and to determine a predefined movement patterncorresponding to the movement and to activate or start a new measurementseries based on the determined predefined movement pattern.

In various exemplary embodiments, when the device is shaken out, theaccelerometer may be set up to detect the shaking as a movement pattern,with a circuit device being set up, based on the detected movementpattern employing the acceleration sensor, to compare the movementpattern with predefined known movement patterns and determine apredefined movement pattern corresponding to the movement and, based onthe determined predefined movement pattern, delete a last measurement ora last series of measurements from a storage device, for example from astorage device of the hair condition determining device and/or from astorage device of an external data processing device and/or from anexternal database.

In various exemplary embodiments, the device may be set up to carry outsimultaneous measurements by employing an NIR sensor and a color sensorand/or a motion sensor, or to simultaneously store correspondingmeasurement values, so that a respective detected color of hair and/or aposition on the hair may be clearly assigned to a detected degree ofhair damage and archived in a storage device. In various exemplaryembodiments, a position on the hair may comprise an upper area at thehairline, a middle area and a lower area, or a border area. In variousexemplary embodiments, for example, an upper area of a user's hair atthe hairline may have a brown tone with a low to slight degree of damageto the hair, and a lower border area of a user's hair may have a lightblonde tone at the tips with a medium to severe degree of hair damage.

In various exemplary embodiments, simultaneous measurement by employingan NIR sensor and a color sensor and/or the detection of a movement ofthe device by employing the movement sensor may allow for a quickoperation of the device by consecutive measurement runs.

In various exemplary embodiments, simultaneous measurement by employingan NIR sensor and a color sensor and/or detection of a movement of thedevice by employing the movement sensor may allow infrared measurementby employing the NIR sensor and measurement of the visible light byemploying the color sensor to be clearly assigned to a position on thehair of a consumer.

In various exemplary embodiments, simultaneous measurement by employingan NIR sensor and a color sensor and/or detection of a movement of thedevice by employing the movement sensor may allow localized measurementzones with simultaneous determination of infrared value and color valueto be realized in order to document the historical damage or change ofthe hair on the basis of several measurements of the hair.

In various exemplary embodiments, a miniaturized piezoelectricaccelerometer made of silicon may be used as an acceleration sensor,which is able to convert the pressure fluctuations caused byacceleration, i.e. by the acceleration of the hair condition determiningdevice with a hand movement, into electrical signals.

In various exemplary embodiments, an acceleration sensor may be used,for example, a piezoresistive or piezocapacitive or micro-mechanicalgyroscopic sensor, which provides a signal that can show theacceleration as well as the inclination of the sensor (position inrelation to gravity).

In various exemplary embodiments, for example, a piezoceramic sensorplate may convert dynamic pressure fluctuations into electrical signals,which may be further processed accordingly. The pressure fluctuationsare generated by a (seismic) mass attached to the piezoceramic and canact on the piezoceramic when the entire system is accelerated.

In various exemplary embodiments, Micro-Electro-Mechanical Systems(MEMS) may be used as acceleration sensors, which may be made ofsilicon. In various exemplary embodiments, the sensors may representspring-mass systems, in which the springs may be bars of silicon only afew μm wide and the mass may also be made of silicon. Due to thedeflection during acceleration, a change in electrical capacitance maybe measured between the spring-mounted part and a fixed referenceelectrode. The entire measuring range may correspond to a change incapacitance of about 1 pF. The electronics for evaluating this smallcapacitance change may be accommodated on an integrated circuit (IC).

In various exemplary embodiments, the accelerometer may be set up insuch a way that, when the sensor signal is horizontal or vertical, theDC components of the sensor signal differ, so that the position of thebody, for example the hair condition determining device, may also bedetermined in space.

In various exemplary embodiments, since an acceleration sensor can onlyreact with maximum sensitivity in one dimension, it may be necessary tocombine a plurality of sensors, for example two or three sensors, inorder to be able to detect movements in the plane or inthree-dimensional space. In various exemplary embodiments a plurality ofsensors may be used to measure human motion behavior in the threespatial dimensions (planes) more precisely.

In various exemplary embodiments, the accelerometer may be set up todetect translational and rotational motion and a mixture of both at apredefined sampling rate.

In various exemplary embodiments, an activity or pattern recognitionmethod may include several successive processing steps. In variousexemplary embodiments, processing of measurement data acquired byemploying the acceleration sensor may include the acquisition of the rawsensor data, their preprocessing and segmentation, the acquisition ofmeaningful characteristics and the actual classification, which mayassign the recorded data to the individual activities. In variousexemplary embodiments, it may be the objective to determine from a setof activities or motion sequences the motion sequence that can bestexplain the measured sensor data. In various exemplary embodiments, ameasuring range of about ±5 G, for example about ±4 G, and a samplingrate in a range of about 20 to about 60 Hz, for example about 50 Hz, maybe selected for a motion detection.

In various exemplary embodiments, the accelerometer may already bedigital and to a certain degree “smart”, so that most of thepreprocessing steps may be performed directly on the hardware itself,e.g. analog-to-digital conversion, calibration or temperaturecompensation. In various exemplary embodiments, it may be useful toconvert the measured raw sensor data into standardized units, e.g. m/s²or rad/s, and into coordinate systems. In various exemplary embodiments,if several sensors are used, the data streams may also be synchronized.In various exemplary embodiments this may not only concern a staticoffset between the signals, but may require a complete re-sampling fordifferent sampling rates.

In various exemplary embodiments, the at least one accelerometer mayprovide a continuous data stream. In order to find out in which periodof time which movement or activity took place, individual segments maybe extracted from the stream in various embodiments. Thus, in variousexemplary embodiments, it may be tried to already detect a beginning andan end of possible activities—for example by determining the intensityof the movement—or additional sensors or context information may beused. In various exemplary embodiments, a window of fixed size may bemoved across the data in certain increments and/or overlapping (slidingwindow). In various exemplary embodiments it is important to ensure thatthe segment size is not too small, but also not too big. If it is toosmall, concise movement patterns could be cut off. If it is too big,patterns of several successive movements could blur. In variousexemplary embodiments, the measurements may be weighted additionallyaccording to their position in the segment, for example as a Hammingwindow. In various exemplary embodiments, a sliding window with a sizeof about 128 samples, for example at about 50 Hz, may be used forapprox. 2.56 s with rectangular windows (unweighted), which may be slidover each other with half overlap. In various exemplary embodiments, forexample, a ring buffer may be used, which may be filled first and thenall samples may be read out and further processed.

In various exemplary embodiments, the calculation and selection offeatures may be carried out in such a way that meaningful features maybe calculated from the output signals measured by the sensors. Featuresmay then be calculated for each segment and passed on to aclassification procedure as a feature vector. The space spanned by thefeature vectors may be called feature space. The more features arecalculated per segment, the larger or higher-dimensional the featurespace may be. For feature selection and reduction, automatic heuristicsand methods such as principal component analysis may be available invarious exemplary embodiments. Established features may includestatistical moments such as mean value, variance, inclination andcurvature. Frequency-based features may be realized using FFT, such aspeak or energy in frequency bands, body model parameters such as jointangles and orientations or even more abstract variants.

In various exemplary embodiments, the recognition of human motion may berealized by simple ad hoc composed control systems using String Matchingand Dynamic Time Warping method (DTW) from voice recognition,Conditional Random Fields (CRF), time-based probabilistic models likeHidden Markov Models (HMM), Dynamic Bayesian Networks (DBN) orComputational State Space Models (CSSM). In various exemplaryembodiments, discriminative statistical machine learning methods, suchas Support Vector Machines (SVM) and C4.5 decision trees, may be used todetect simple movements.

In various exemplary embodiments, the device may also include anelectronic circuit device, such as a processor.

In various exemplary embodiments, the circuit device may at least beconfigured to control an operating condition of the device based on atleast one movement condition of the device detected by theaccelerometer.

In various exemplary embodiments, the circuit device may also be set upto store at least one hair condition information detected by employingthe at least one sensor in a storage device of the device or in anexternal storage device, and/or to delete at least one hair conditioninformation from the storage device of the device or from the externalstorage device, and/or to transmit the hair condition information to anexternal data processing device, and/or to display information based onthe hair condition information on a display device of the device and/oron a display device of the external data processing device.

In various exemplary embodiments, the device may further comprise adisplay device for displaying information based on the at least one haircondition information acquired by employing the device.

In various exemplary embodiments, the device may further comprise avibration unit for haptically communicating the completion of ameasurement, error conditions or further system conditions to the user.

In various exemplary embodiments, an input device may be used to enter adesired result, for example a desired hair color, a desired carecondition or a desired styling. In addition, the input device may beused to provide the hair condition determining device with furtherinformation that may be taken into account when determining therecommendation, e.g. whether a product should be waterproof, age and/orgender of the user (e.g. in case a care product is scented), etc.

In various exemplary embodiments, the sensors may be operatedsimultaneously.

In various exemplary embodiments, the hair condition sensor may comprisean infrared sensor (IR sensor) or a near infrared spectroscopy sensor(NIR sensor) and/or a UV/fluorescence sensor and/or a sensor byemploying which visible light may be detected.

In various exemplary embodiments, internal hair damage and/or a moisturelevel of the hair may be detected by employing the hair condition sensorand determined by an electronic circuit device.

In various exemplary embodiments the hair condition determining devicemay be part of an ecosystem of devices and/or software products. Such anecosystem may comprise, for example, a mixing device for the productionof individual hair treatment products, a separate display device, forexample in the form of a “smart mirror”, a central control software,which is installed on a data processing device, for example a tablet,and controls the individual devices and data flows.

In various exemplary embodiments, data recorded by the hair conditiondetermining device as part of an ecosystem and, if necessary, furtherdata entered by a specialist, for example a hairdresser, via an app orother suitable software, for example relating to the appearance and/orhaptics of hair of at least one user, may be processed in a “cloud”,whereby in particular a determination of hair damage may be processed.

In various exemplary embodiments, the concrete composition of a hairtreatment product, for example a shampoo, a cure or a colorant, may becalculated based on the determined hair condition. In various exemplaryembodiments, the composition of a hair treatment product adapted to thedetermined hair condition of the user may be determined and forwarded tothe mixing device. In the mixing device, for example, the individualhair treatment product may be produced from several basic formulations.In different embodiments, the ecosystem may be controlled by a centraldata processing device, for example a tablet, iPad® etc. In variousexemplary embodiments, the results, for example, a degree of hairdamage, a moisture content, and/or a calculated hair color, may bevisualized in parallel by a display device, for example a smart mirror,a user or a customer.

In various exemplary embodiments, an individual hair treatment productmay be produced for a user by employing the data recorded by the haircondition determining device and/or the determined hair condition.

In various exemplary embodiments, a method for providing hair conditioninformation may be provided. The method may include moving a haircondition determining device according to any one of Claims 1 to 14along an area of a user's hair at a predefined distance from the hair,illuminating the hair by employing at least one light source, duringillumination, detecting a portion of light that has interacted with thehair by employing at least one first sensor, detecting at least onedegree of hair damage by employing a second sensor, detecting at leastone movement pattern when the hair condition determining device moves inspace by employing an acceleration sensor, and processing the at leastone detected hair condition information based on the detected movementpattern by employing an electronic circuit device.

In various exemplary embodiments, processing may comprise at least oneof the following: storing the hair condition information detected by atleast one sensor in a storage device upon detection of a first movementpattern, deleting at least one hair condition information stored in thestorage device and/or in the external storage device upon detection of asecond movement pattern, transmitting the hair condition information toan external data processing device and/or to an external storage deviceupon detection of a third movement pattern, and displaying informationbased on the hair condition information on a display device of thedevice and/or on a display device of the external data processing deviceupon detection of a fourth movement pattern.

In various exemplary embodiments, the method may further comprise:performing the hair color detection at a first time and performing thehair damage degree detection at a second time, wherein the first timeand the second time are within a predefined time range.

In other words, in various exemplary embodiments, performing the haircolor detection and performing the hair damage degree detection may beperformed approximately simultaneously. In various exemplaryembodiments, this may allow a data set to include a hair color value(detected by the color sensor), a hair damage degree value (detected bythe hair condition sensor) and a position in space (detected by theacceleration sensor). In various exemplary embodiments it is possible toprovide a multi-dimensional data set by employing the hair conditiondetermining device for further processing, e.g. for display on a displaydevice.

In various exemplary embodiments, detecting the movement pattern maycomprise comparing the detected movement with a predefined movementpattern by employing an electronic circuit device, and assigning themovement to a predefined movement pattern by employing the circuitdevice.

In various exemplary embodiments, the method may further comprisecalibrating at least one sensor of the plurality of sensors by employinga calibration medium, wherein the hair condition determining devicecomprises the calibration medium, wherein the at least one sensor of theplurality of sensors is positioned opposite the calibration medium, andwherein a sensor main measurement direction of the at least one sensorof the plurality of sensors is positioned at a predetermined angle tothe calibration medium, and wherein the calibration medium comprises aceramic material.

In various exemplary embodiments, calibration may further comprisemerging a first area and a second area of the hair condition determiningdevice, such that the first area and the second area face each other ata predefined distance, wherein in the first area the first sensor andthe second sensor are positioned and in the second area the calibrationmedium is positioned, and performing calibration of at least one sensorof the plurality of sensors during merging.

In various exemplary embodiments, a hair condition determining device,which is in a standby state (e.g. only the motion sensor and the circuitdevice are supplied with power), may be picked up by a user with onehand. In various exemplary embodiments, the hair condition determiningdevice may detect a change in movement of the hair condition determiningdevice by employing at least one acceleration sensor and transmit sensoroutput measurement data corresponding to the detected movement to anelectronic circuit device, either wirelessly or wired. In variousexemplary embodiments, the circuit device may compare the receivedmeasurement data with known motion measurement data and assign them toat least one known motion measurement data set. In various exemplaryembodiments, the circuit device may activate the hair conditiondetermining device in standby mode to an operating mode (for example, inaddition to the motion sensor and the circuit device, at least one lightsource and at least one color sensor and one hair condition sensor arealso supplied with energy from a rechargeable battery). In variousexemplary embodiments, the user may move the hair condition determiningdevice according to a predefined movement pattern before performing aseries of measurements in order to achieve an operating mode of the haircondition determining device, e.g. “holding the hair conditiondetermining device vertical” after removing the hair conditiondetermining device from an external charging station, “holding the haircondition determining device vertical and shaking” in order to start anew series of measurements, “shaking the hair condition determiningdevice out” in order to delete a last measurement, etc.

In various exemplary embodiments, the hair condition determining devicemay detect further movement patterns of the user and processcorresponding commands. In various exemplary embodiments, the haircondition determining device may be set up so that it can detect newmovement patterns provided by the user, i.e. movements in which the usermoves his arm with the hair condition determining device in a predefinedmanner or repeatedly moves it in a predefined manner, and store them andassign them to specific actions or measurement sequences that may beperformed by the hair condition determining device.

In various exemplary embodiments, the hair condition determining devicemay be activated by “holding the hair condition determining devicevertical and shaking it” before a new measurement series is carried out.In various exemplary embodiments, the hair condition determining devicemay be parameterized in such a way that it is ready for the start of anew measurement series, e.g. the color sensor and/or the hair conditionsensor and/or at least one light source on the hair conditiondetermining device is activated. In various exemplary embodiments, theuser may bring or put or move the hair condition determining device onthe hair of a consumer in such a way that the hair may be locatedbetween a first area, which may, for example, comprise at least onesensor and/or one light source, and a second area, which may comprise atleast one carrier and/or one calibration medium, and may be grasped bythe first and the second area in a pincer-like manner by employingmanual force of the user without causing damage to the hair.

In various exemplary embodiments, a hair condition measurement may becarried out at one point by employing the hair condition determiningdevice and the measurement data recorded by the color sensor and/or thehair condition sensor may be transmitted to the circuit device.

In various exemplary embodiments, a series of measurements may becarried out at changing positions by employing the hair conditiondetermining device, e.g. by the user moving the hair conditiondetermining device from the hairline to the hair tips. In variousexemplary embodiments, the circuit device may evaluate the measurementdata or series of measurements received from the respective sensorsitself or transmit them to an external data processing device, eitherwirelessly or wired, for evaluation. In various exemplary embodiments,an evaluation of the acquired data may include, for example, a graphicalrepresentation of hair condition information on a display device of thehair condition determining device and/or an external data processingdevice. In various exemplary embodiments, the acquired measurement datamay also be stored in a storage device of the hair condition determiningdevice and/or the external data processing device.

In various example embodiments, the user of the hair conditiondetermining device may cause the acquired measurement data to be storedby moving the hair condition determining device according to apredefined movement pattern in order to set the hair conditiondetermining device in a storage mode, for example by employing a “fastmovement from left to right and again from right to left” of the haircondition determining device before performing a new series ofmeasurements.

In various exemplary embodiments, the hair condition determining devicemay be set to a standby mode by employing, for example, a “shake out”after a successful execution of at least one recording of sensormeasurement values, in that, for example, the color sensor and the haircondition sensor may no longer be supplied with energy and only theacceleration sensor and the circuit device may be supplied with energy,for example, if the hair condition determining device is located in acharging station.

In various exemplary embodiments, it may be made possible that a seriesof measurements including shades of hair color and degrees of hairdamage, and a position where at least one hair color and at least onedegree of hair damage has been recorded from hair of a consumer, may bemade available for further data post-processing.

In various exemplary embodiments, the hair condition determining devicecan make it possible to compare the results of the measurement serieswhen a plurality of measurement series are repeatedly carried out on thehair of a constant consumer after a predefined time, for example, to beable to track or determine progress with regard to minimizing the degreeof hair damage to the consumer's hair through the use of suitable haircare products.

In various exemplary embodiments, the device may exchange informationwith a memory for managing hair condition information via a data link,e.g. measured values concerning hair color and/or degree of hair damage.The memory may be a large data storage, for example a data server, acloud server, an analysis platform such as the Constant InformationMiner Server (KNIME server) or a Big Data KNIME server. By using a KNIMEserver, systematic applications of statistical methods to large amountsof data may be realized, whereby the large amounts of data, also knownas “big data” or mass data, cannot be evaluated with manual orconventional data processing methods. By using a KNIME server, forexample, a simple and fast connection of modules for the datapreprocessing of user data may be realized using a graphical userinterface. By using a KNIME server and big data, for example, new crosslinks and trends in the care product industry may be determined.

The designs and advantages described here refer to the device and themethod. Exemplary embodiments of the present disclosure are shown in thefigures and are explained in more detail below. The descriptions of thefigures are repeated below for reference.

FIG. 1 is a schematic side view of a hair condition determining devicefor providing hair condition information according to differentexemplary embodiments;

FIG. 2 is a schematic illustration of a hair condition determiningdevice for providing hair condition information according to differentexemplary embodiments;

FIGS. 3 a, 3 b, 3 c are an exemplary operation of a hair conditiondetermining device for providing hair condition information according todifferent exemplary embodiments; and

FIG. 4 is an exemplary flow chart of a method for providing haircondition information according to different exemplary embodiments.

In the following detailed description, reference is made to the attacheddrawings which form part of the present application and which, forillustration, show specific exemplary embodiments in which the presentdisclosure may be applied

In this respect, directional terminology such as “top”, “bottom”,“front”, “back”, “forward”, “backward”, etc. is used in relation to theorientation of the Figure(s) described. Since components of exemplaryembodiments may be positioned in a number of different orientations, thedirectional terminology is used for illustration purposes and is notrestrictive in any way. It goes without saying that other exemplaryembodiments may be used and structural or logical changes may be madewithout deviating from the scope of protection of the presentdisclosure.

Furthermore, it goes without saying that the features of the variousexemplary embodiments described herein may be combined, unlessspecifically stated otherwise.

The following detailed description is therefore not to be understood ina restrictive sense and the scope of protection of the presentdisclosure is defined by the attached claims.

A digital image herein may be understood to be a data packet which maybe represented by a data processing system as a two-dimensional set-upof pixels, for example in a coordinate system having an x-axis and ay-axis, each pixel being associated with at least one color informationwhich may be represented as the color of a pixel of a monitor or aprinted dot of a printed image. The digital image may, for example, be aphotograph taken with a digital camera or a single frame of a videosequence taken with a digital camera.

In this context, a “color” may be understood as a combination of a shadeof color (i.e. a spectral color impression, also known as hue, which maybe understood as what is regarded as the “actual color”), a colorintensity (i.e. how intense the color appears, e.g. compared to aneutral gray, which is also known as saturation, color saturation,chromaticity, chromaticity or color depth) and a brightness (i.e. howlight or dark the color appears).

In various exemplary embodiments, the color information may beparameterized in a known color space, for example in an L*a*b* colorspace (where L* indicates the brightness of a color, a* the green andred components and b* the blue and yellow components of the color), inan RGB color space by color components in red, green and blue, in a CMYKcolor space by color components in cyan, magenta, yellow and black, orin any other color space.

The term “hue” may be understood herein as a color value or the spectralcolor impression of a color, regardless of how it may be parameterized,for example as a point in a two-dimensional color space (e.g. a*b* ofthe L*a*b* system) or a ratio of color components (as in the RGB colorspace or the CMYK color space).

In various exemplary embodiments, a color space from which the colorinformation (hair color information and image color information)originates may be such that a determined or represented color isindependent of a medium through which the color is determined orrepresented (e.g. screen, printer, scanner, human eye, etc.). The colorspace may be, for example, an L*a*b* color space, the color informationa shade of color parameterized by employing a* and b*, for example. Theuniform representation in the medium-independent color space makes itpossible to present a realistically expected coloring result.

FIG. 1 is a schematic side view of a hair condition determining deviceto provide hair condition information according to differentembodiments.

In various sample embodiments, the hair condition determining device maycomprise at least one optical sensor 1, for example a color sensor 1 aand a hair condition sensor 1 b, in a first area A. In various exemplaryembodiments, the first area A may further comprise a light source 2, anacceleration sensor 6, an electronic circuit device 7, a storage device8 and optionally a display device 11. In various exemplary embodimentsthe display device 11 may be located on top of the hair conditiondetermining device.

In various exemplary embodiments, the first area A may further comprisea haptic signal generator (vibrator).

In various exemplary embodiments, the first area A may be coupled to asecond area B via a connecting element 4. In various exemplaryembodiments the connecting element 4 may comprise a U-shaped and elasticspring steel. In various exemplary embodiments, the second area B maycomprise a carrier 3 and a calibration medium 5. In various exemplaryembodiments, the first area A and the second area B may be positioned atend areas C of connecting element 4. In various exemplary embodiments, alower surface of the first area A may be at a predefined distance D, forexample in a range from about 0 mm to about 200 mm, from the second areaB. In various exemplary embodiments, hair H of a consumer may be placedbetween the first area A and the second area B. In various exemplaryembodiments, the light source 2 may be configured to illuminate theopposite carrier 3 and/or the opposite calibration medium 5 during ameasurement of hair condition information, for example a hair color anda degree of hair damage. In various exemplary embodiments, a movement ormovement pattern 6 may be detected by employing the acceleration sensor6 and determined by an electronic circuit device 7 by comparing thedetected measurement data with at least one known movement pattern. Invarious exemplary embodiments, at least one recorded sensor measurementdata record may be archived or stored by employing the storage device 8.In various exemplary embodiments, at least one hair conditioninformation of a consumer and/or a user of the hair conditiondetermining device may be displayed by employing the display device 11.

In various exemplary embodiments, a hair condition determining device,which is for example in a standby mode (for example, in standby modeonly the motion sensor and the circuit device are supplied with power),may be picked up by a user, for example a hairdresser, with one hand,i.e. one hand only. In various exemplary embodiments, the hair conditiondetermining device may detect a change of movement of the hair conditiondetermining device in space by employing at least one accelerationsensor 6 and transmit sensor output measurement data corresponding to adetected movement to an electronic circuit device 7 wirelessly or bywire. In various exemplary embodiments, the circuit device 7 may comparethe received measurement data with known motion measurement data andassign them to at least one known motion measurement data record.

In various exemplary embodiments, the circuit device 7 may cause thehair condition determining device in standby mode to activate into anoperating mode (for example, in the operating mode, in addition to themotion sensor 6 and the circuit device 7, at least one light source 2and at least one color sensor 1 a and a hair condition sensor 1 b arealso supplied with energy from a rechargeable battery).

In various exemplary embodiments, the user may move the hair conditiondetermining device according to a predefined movement pattern beforeperforming a series of measurements in order to achieve a shifting ofthe hair condition determining device into an operational state, e.g.“keeping the hair condition determining device vertical” after removingthe hair condition determining device from an external charging stationmay cause an activation of the hair condition determining device,“holding the hair condition determining device vertical and shaking it”may be used to start a new recording of at least one measurement series,“shaking the hair condition determining device out” may be used todelete a last measurement and/or measurement series from the storagedevice 7, etc.

In various exemplary embodiments, the hair condition determining devicemay capture further movement patterns of the user and then processcorresponding commands. In various exemplary embodiments, the haircondition determining device may be set up to learn and save newlyprovided movement patterns, i.e. movements in which the user moves hisarm together with the hair condition determining device in a predefinedmanner or repeatedly moves it in a predefined manner, and to assign themto certain actions that may be performed by the hair conditiondetermining device.

In various exemplary embodiments, the hair condition determining devicemay be activated by “holding it vertical and shaking” the hair conditiondetermining device before a new measurement series is performed. Invarious exemplary embodiments, the hair condition determining device maythen be parameterized in such a way that it is ready to take at leastone new series of measurements and, for example, the color sensor 1 aand/or the hair condition sensor 1 b and/or at least one light source 2may be activated on the hair condition determining device. In variousexemplary embodiments, the user may attach or apply or move the haircondition determining device to hair H of a consumer in such a way thatthe hair is located between a first area A, which may, for example,comprise at least one sensor 1 and/or one light source 2, and a secondarea B, which may comprise at least one carrier 3 and/or one calibrationmedium 5, and may be held by the first area A and the second area B in apincer-like manner by employing the manual force of the user withoutcausing damage to the hair.

In various exemplary embodiments, in order to record a plurality of haircondition measurement values by employing the device, the first area Aand the second area B may be moved towards each other by the musclepower of the user, while the hair H of a consumer to be measured islocated between the first area A and the second area B.

In various exemplary embodiments, the first sensor 1 a, for example acolor sensor, and/or the second sensor 1 b, for example an NIR sensor,may be set to a calibration mode during a calibration process byemploying the calibration medium 5 after activation of the color sensorand/or the NIR sensor and a light source 2. In various exemplaryembodiments, the calibration medium 5 may then be moved to a predefineddistance, for example to a distance of about 0 mm to about 10 mm,towards the opposite color sensor 1 a and/or the NIR sensor 1 b usingmuscle power. In various exemplary embodiments, for example, thecalibration medium may be positioned directly in front of or directlyagainst a main measuring surface of the NIR sensor during a calibrationprocess of the NIR sensor. In various exemplary embodiments, the colorsensor 1 a may then use the light source 2 and/or the NIR sensor 1 b mayuse an infrared source (IR source) to illuminate a surface of thecalibration medium 5 opposite the sensors 1, for example a ceramic, anddetect or measure a reflection (and thus also the absorption) of thereflected light rays and/or infrared rays. In various exemplaryembodiments, the color sensor 1 a and/or the NIR sensor 1 b may thengenerate an internal calibration profile for all further measurements.

In various exemplary embodiments, the hair condition determining devicemay be used to carry out a hair condition measurement at one point onthe hair and the measurement data recorded by the color sensor 1 aand/or the hair condition sensor 1 b may be transmitted to the circuitdevice 7.

In various exemplary embodiments, the first sensor 1 a, for example acolor sensor, and/or the second sensor 1 b, for example an NIR sensor,may emit light when the light source 2 and/or infrared source areswitched on, which may fall on a consumer's hair, whereby the emittedlight is reflected back by the hair or on the hair. In various exemplaryembodiments, the reflected light rays and/or infrared rays may bedetected or measured by the sensors 1 and stored in the storage device8, for example. In various exemplary embodiments, a multi-channel colormeasurement with transformation into a representation space, for exampleCIE LAB, may be carried out using color sensor 1 a.

In various exemplary embodiments, a series of measurements may becarried out at changing positions by employing the hair conditiondetermining device, e.g. by the user moving the hair conditiondetermining device from the hairline to the hair tips. In variousexemplary embodiments, the circuit device 7 may evaluate the measurementdata or series of measurements received from the respective sensors 1 a,1 b by itself or transmit them wirelessly or by wire to at least oneexternal data processing device 10 for evaluation. In various exemplaryembodiments, an evaluation of the acquired data may comprise, forexample, a graphical representation of hair condition information on adisplay device 11 of the hair condition determining device and/or anexternal data processing device 12. In various exemplary embodiments,the acquired measurement data may also be stored in a storage device 8of the hair condition determining device and/or the external dataprocessing device 10.

In various exemplary embodiments, the user of the hair conditiondetermining device may cause the acquired measurement data to be storedby moving the hair condition determining device according to apredefined movement pattern in order to put the hair conditiondetermining device into a storage mode, for example by employing a “fastmovement from left to right and again from right to left” of the haircondition determining device before performing a new measurement series.

In various exemplary embodiments, the hair condition determining devicemay be set to a standby mode, for example by employing a “shaking out”after a successful execution of at least one recording of sensormeasurement values, in that, for example, the color sensor 1 a and thehair condition sensor 1 b and the light source 2 and the infrared sourcemay no longer be supplied with energy and only the acceleration sensor 6and the circuit device 7 may be supplied with energy, for example, ifthe hair condition determining device is located in a charging station.

FIG. 2 shows a schematic representation of a device for providing haircondition information according to different exemplary embodiments.

In various exemplary embodiments, the hair condition determining devicemay include a data transmission module by employing which acquiredmeasurement data may be transmitted via a connection 15, e.g. a wirelessconnection, to at least one external data processing device 10, e.g. asmartphone or tablet. In various exemplary embodiments, the measurementdata transmitted to the external data processing device 10 may begraphically represented, for example, by employing a display device 12.In various example embodiments, the hair condition determining devicemay have a data transmission module, by employing which acquiredmeasurement data may be transmitted to at least one external storagedevice 9 via a connection 16, for example a wireless connection. Invarious exemplary embodiments, the data transmission module may be thesame and the data transmission via connections 15 and 16 may be realizedsimultaneously.

FIGS. 3 a, 3 b, 3 c illustrate an exemplary operation of a haircondition determining device for the provision of hair conditioninformation by a user according to different exemplary embodiments.

FIG. 3 a shows a movement pattern where the user first holds the haircondition determining device vertically and then shakes it horizontallyfrom left to right. This movement pattern may be recognized orregistered by the circuit device 7. The hair condition determiningdevice may then be configured in such a way that it is ready to record anew series of measurements.

FIG. 3 b shows a movement pattern where the user “shakes out” the haircondition determining device, for example, about one axis to cause thehair condition determining device to delete previously acquiredmeasurement data or at least one measurement series.

FIG. 3 c illustrates another exemplary movement pattern, where the usermay, for example, cause the hair condition determining device totransmit measured data to an external data processing device 10.

FIG. 4 shows an exemplary flow chart of a method for providing haircondition information according to different exemplary embodiments.

The method for providing hair condition information may be used invarious exemplary embodiments, e.g. movement with a hair conditiondetermining device according to one of Claims 1 to 14 along an area of auser's hair at a predefined distance from the hair, illuminating thehair by employing at least one light source, detecting during theillumination a part of light which has interacted with the hair byemploying at least one first sensor, detecting at least one degree ofhair damage by employing a second sensor, detecting at least onemovement pattern during a movement of the hair condition determiningdevice in space by employing an acceleration sensor, and processing theat least one detected hair condition information based on the detectedmovement pattern by employing an electronic circuit device.

The features and advantages described herein in relation to the haircondition determining device are of course also related to the methoddescribed herein and vice versa.

Various aspects of this disclosure will be illustrated below:

Exemplary embodiment 1 is a hair condition determining device forproviding hair condition information. The device may have a first areaand a second area configured to allow a user's hair to be moved betweenthe first area and the second area, wherein in the first area at leastone optical sensor for detecting light from a light source as the haircondition information is positioned, wherein the second area comprisesat least one carrier, and wherein the first area and the second area arecoupled by employing a connecting element such that the first area andthe second area face each other in such a way that a main sensormeasuring direction of the at least one sensor is oriented at apredefined angle to a surface of the carrier, wherein the connectingelement is a hair condition determining device for providing haircondition information.

In exemplary embodiment 2, the subject-matter of exemplary embodiment 1may optionally show that the connecting element comprises an elasticmaterial.

In exemplary embodiment 3, the subject-matter of exemplary embodiments 1or 2 may optionally show that the connecting element has a U-shapedconfiguration and the first area and the second area are each positionedat an end area of the U-shaped configuration.

In exemplary embodiment 4, the subject-matter of exemplary embodiments 1to 3 may optionally show that at least one calibration medium ispositioned on an area of the surface of the carrier facing the firstarea, wherein the calibration medium is configured to calibrate at leastthe sensor of the device.

In exemplary embodiment 5, the subject-matter of exemplary embodiment 4may optionally show that the calibration medium comprises or is aceramic material.

In exemplary embodiment 6, the subject-matter of exemplary embodiments 1to 5 may optionally show that the first area comprises a color sensorfor detecting a hair color of a user and/or hair damage via UV light byemploying absorption or reflection and a hair condition sensor fordetecting a degree of hair damage of the user, and wherein the colorsensor detects a hair color of the user at a first time and the haircondition sensor detects a degree of hair damage of the user at a secondtime, and wherein the first time and the second time lie in a predefinedtime range, and wherein the calibration medium is configured tocalibrate at least the sensor of the device.

In exemplary embodiment 7, the subject-matter of exemplary embodiments 1to 6 may optionally show that the first area or the second area furtherinclude an acceleration sensor.

In exemplary embodiment 8 the subject-matter of exemplary embodiment 7may optionally show that the acceleration sensor is designed to detect amovement condition of the device in space.

In exemplary embodiment 9, the subject-matter of exemplary embodiments 1to 8 may optionally show that the device further comprises an electroniccircuit device.

In exemplary embodiment 10, the subject-matter of exemplary embodiment 9may optionally show that the circuit device is at least set up tocontrol an operating mode of the device based on at least one movementcondition of the device detected by employing the acceleration sensor.

In exemplary embodiment 11, the subject-matter of exemplary embodiment10 may optionally show that the circuit device is further set up, basedon the respective detected movement condition, to store at least oneitem of hair condition information detected by employing the at leastone sensor in a storage device of the device or in an external storagedevice, and/or to delete at least one item of hair condition informationfrom the storage device of the device or from the external storagedevice, and/or to transmit the hair condition information to an externaldata processing device, and/or to display information based on the haircondition information on a display device of the device and/or on adisplay device of the external data processing device.

In exemplary embodiment 12, the subject-matter of exemplary embodiments1 to 10 may optionally show that the device further comprises a displaydevice for displaying information based on the at least one haircondition information recorded by employing the device.

In exemplary embodiment 13, the subject-matter of exemplary embodiments6 to 12 may optionally show that the sensors are operatedsimultaneously.

In exemplary embodiment 14, the subject-matter of exemplary embodiments1 to 13 may optionally show that the hair condition sensor comprises anear-infrared spectroscopy sensor and/or a UV/fluorescence sensor and/ora sensor by employing which visible light may be detected.

In exemplary embodiment 15, the subject-matter of exemplary embodiments1 to 14 may optionally show that the hair condition determining deviceis part of an ecosystem.

In exemplary embodiment 16, the subject-matter of exemplary embodiments1 to 15 may optionally show that an individual hair treatment productmay be produced for a user by employing the data recorded by the haircondition determining device and/or the determined hair condition.

Exemplary embodiment 17 is a method for providing hair conditioninformation. The method may show moving a hair condition determiningdevice according to one of the example embodiments 1 to 16 along an areaof a user's hair at a predefined distance from the hair, illuminatingthe hair by employing at least one light source, during theillumination, detecting a portion of light that has interacted with thehair by employing at least one first sensor, detecting at least onedegree of hair damage by employing a second sensor, detecting at leastone movement pattern when the hair condition determining device is movedin space by employing an acceleration sensor, and processing the atleast one detected hair condition information based on the detectedmovement pattern by employing an electronic circuit device.

In exemplary embodiment 18, the subject-matter of exemplary embodiment17 may optionally indicate that processing includes at least one of thefollowing: storing the hair condition information detected by employingat least one sensor in a storage device upon detection of a firstmovement pattern, deleting at least one hair condition informationstored in the storage device and/or in the external storage device upondetection of a second movement pattern, transmitting the hair conditioninformation to an external data processing device and/or to an externalstorage device upon detection of a third movement pattern, displayinginformation based on the hair condition information on a display deviceof the device and/or on a display device of the external data processingdevice upon detection of a fourth movement pattern.

In exemplary embodiment 19, the subject-matter of the exemplaryembodiments 15 or 18 may optionally show that the method furthercomprises performing the detection of the hair color at a first time andperforming the detection of the degree of hair damage at a second time,wherein the first time and the second time are in a predefined timerange.

In exemplary embodiment 20, the subject-matter of exemplary embodiments17 to 19 may optionally show that detecting the movement patterncomprises comparing the detected movement with a predefined movementpattern by employing an electronic circuit device, and assigning themovement to a predefined movement pattern by employing the circuitdevice.

In exemplary embodiment 21, the subject-matter of the exemplaryembodiments 17 to 20 may optionally show that the method furthercomprises calibrating at least one sensor of the plurality of sensors byemploying a calibration medium, wherein the hair condition determiningdevice comprises the calibration medium, wherein the at least one sensorof the plurality of sensors is positioned opposite the calibrationmedium, and wherein a sensor main measurement direction of the at leastone sensor of the plurality of sensors is positioned at a predeterminedangle to the calibration medium, and wherein the calibration mediumcomprises a ceramic material.

In exemplary embodiment 22, the subject-matter of the exemplaryembodiment 21 may optionally show that the calibration further comprisesmerging a first area and a second area of the hair condition determiningdevice such that the first area and the second area are opposite to eachother at a predefined distance, wherein in the first area the firstsensor and the second sensor are positioned and in the second area 8Bthe calibration medium is positioned, and while merging, performing thecalibration of at least one sensor of the plurality of sensors.

In exemplary embodiment 23, the subject-matter of the exemplaryembodiments 1 to 16 may optionally show that the at least one sensorcomprises a high-end multi-band sensor or a multi-spectral color sensor.

In exemplary embodiment 24, the subject-matter of exemplary embodiments17 to 22 may optionally show that the movement pattern comprises ashaking movement of the hair condition determining device by the user ofthe hair condition determining device and/or the movement patterncomprises a swinging movement of the hair condition determining deviceby a user of the hair condition determining device.

In exemplary embodiment 25, the subject-matter of exemplary embodiments1 to 16 may optionally show that the elastic connecting material has amatte and/or matte coated finish.

In exemplary embodiment 26, the subject-matter of exemplary embodiments1 to 16 may optionally show that a material of the carrier is white orin a white shade in order to enable high reflection.

In exemplary embodiment 27, the subject-matter of exemplary embodiments1 to 16 may optionally show that the device, if no movement is detectedby employing the acceleration sensor, is set into a standby or sleepmode by employing the electronic circuit device.

In exemplary embodiment 28, the subject-matter of exemplary embodiments1 to 16 may optionally show that the device, if movement is detected byemploying the acceleration sensor, is set to an operating mode by theelectronic circuit device.

In exemplary embodiment 29, the subject-matter of exemplary embodiments1 to 16 may optionally show that the first and the second area may bebrought together by employing muscle power of a user in such a way thatthe sensors in the first area and the calibration medium in the secondarea are opposite each other up to a predefined distance.

In exemplary embodiment 30, the subject-matter of exemplary embodiments1 to 16 may optionally show that the device comprises at least onerechargeable battery or at least one battery for power supply.

In example embodiment 31, the subject-matter of exemplary embodiments 1to 14 may optionally show that the connecting element comprises springsteel or plastic material.

In exemplary embodiment 32, the subject-matter of exemplary embodiments1 to 16 may optionally show that the first area and the second area eachcomprises an enclosure, the enclosure being configured to enclose and/orseal off the electronic components from the outside.

Exemplary embodiment 33 may comprise a system, wherein the systemcomprises a device according to one of Claims 1 to 16 and furthercomprises a mobile data processing device, wherein the mobile dataprocessing device is configured to display at least one item ofinformation based on the determined hair condition information and/orthe system further comprises an external database, wherein the databaseis configured to store the hair condition information detected byemploying the at least one sensor.

While at least one exemplary embodiment has been presented in theforegoing detailed description, it should be appreciated that a vastnumber of variations exist. It should also be appreciated that theexemplary embodiment or exemplary embodiments are only examples, and arenot intended to limit the scope, applicability, or configuration of thevarious embodiments in any way. Rather, the foregoing detaileddescription will provide those skilled in the art with a convenient roadmap for implementing an exemplary embodiment as contemplated herein. Itbeing understood that various changes may be made in the function andarrangement of elements described in an exemplary embodiment withoutdeparting from the scope of the various embodiments as set forth in theappended claims.

The invention claimed is:
 1. A hair condition determining device forproviding hair condition information, comprising: a first area and asecond area configured to allow a user's hair to move between the firstarea and the second area, wherein the first area comprises (i) at leastone optical sensor for detecting light from a light source and (ii) ahair condition sensor, the at least one optical sensor comprising acolor sensor configured to detect a hair color of the user's hair, thehair condition sensor configured to detect a degree of hair damage ofthe user's hair, wherein the second area comprises at least one carrierand a calibration medium disposed on a surface of the at least onecarrier and facing the first area, the calibration medium configured toreflect light from the light source to thereby calibrate the at leastone optical sensor, and wherein the first area and the second area arecoupled by a connecting element in such a way that the first area andthe second area are opposite each other in such a way that a sensor mainmeasuring direction of the at least one optical sensor is oriented at apredefined angle to a surface of the at least one carrier, wherein: thehair condition sensor comprises a near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopysensor configured to determine the degree of hair damage based on acontent of cysteic acid.
 2. The hair condition determination deviceaccording to claim 1, wherein the connecting element comprises anelastic material.
 3. The hair condition determination device accordingto claim 1, wherein the connecting element shows a U-shapedconfiguration and the first area and the second area are each positionedat an end area of the U-shaped configuration.
 4. The hair conditiondetermination device according to claim 1, wherein the calibrationmedium comprises a ceramic material.
 5. The hair condition determinationdevice according to claim 1, wherein the color sensor is furtherconfigured to detect hair damage via UV light by absorption orreflection, and wherein the color sensor is configured to detect thehair color of the user's hair at a first time and the hair conditionsensor is configured to detect the degree of hair damage of the user'shair at a second time, and wherein the first time and the second timelie in a predefined time range.
 6. The hair condition determinationdevice according to claim 1, wherein the first area or the second areafurther comprises an acceleration sensor.
 7. The hair conditiondetermination device according to claim 6, wherein the accelerationsensor is configured to detect a movement condition of the haircondition determination device in space.
 8. The hair conditiondetermination device according to claim 7, wherein the hair conditiondetermination device further comprises an electronic circuit device. 9.The hair condition determination device according to claim 8, whereinthe electronic circuit device is at least configured to control anoperating condition of the hair condition determination device based onat least one movement condition of the hair condition determinationdevice detected by the acceleration sensor.
 10. The hair conditiondetermination device according to claim 9, wherein: the electroniccircuit device is further configured, based on the detected movementcondition, to store at least one item of hair condition informationdetected by the at least one optical sensor in a storage device of thehair condition determination device or in an external storage device,and/or to delete at least one hair condition information from thestorage device of the hair condition determination device or from theexternal storage device, and/or transmit the hair condition informationto an external data processing device, and/or to display informationbased on the hair condition information on a display device of the haircondition determination device and/or on a display device of theexternal data processing device.
 11. The device according to claim 1,further comprising a mixing device configured to produce an individualhair treatment product for the user by utilizing data recorded by thehair condition determining device.
 12. A method for providing haircondition information, comprising: moving a hair condition determiningdevice along an area of a user's hair at a predefined distance from theuser's hair, the hair conditioning determining device comprising a firstarea and a second area configured to allow the user's hair to movebetween the first area and the second area, the first area comprising atleast one first sensor and at least one second sensor, the second areacomprising at least one carrier and a calibration medium disposed on asurface of the at least one carrier and facing the first area;illuminating the user's hair with at least one light source; duringillumination, detecting a portion of light which has interacted with theuser's hair with the at least one first sensor, the at least one firstsensor comprising a color sensor configured to detect a hair color ofthe user's hair; detecting at least one degree of hair damage byutilizing the at least one second sensor, the at least one second sensorcomprising a near-infrared (NIR) spectroscopy sensor configured todetermine the at least one degree of hair damage based on a content ofcysteic acid; detecting at least one movement pattern during a movementof the hair condition determining device in space by utilizing anacceleration sensor; and processing of a detected hair conditioninformation based on the detected at least one movement pattern byutilizing an electronic circuit device, wherein: the calibration mediumis configured to reflect light from the light source to therebycalibrate the at least one first sensor, and the first area and thesecond area are coupled by a connecting element in such a way that thefirst area and the second area are opposite each other in such a waythat a sensor main measuring direction of the at least one first sensoris oriented at a predefined angle to a surface of the at least onecarrier.
 13. The method according to claim 12, wherein the processingcomprises at least one of the following: storing the detected haircondition information in a storage device upon detection of a firstmovement pattern; deleting at least one of the detected hair conditioninformation stored in the storage device upon detection of a secondmovement pattern; transmitting the detected hair condition informationto an external data processing device and/or to an external storagedevice when a third movement pattern is detected; and displayinginformation based on the detected hair condition information on adisplay device of the hair condition determining device and/or on adisplay device of the external data processing device upon detection ofa fourth movement pattern.
 14. The method according to claim 12, themethod further comprising: performing a detection of a hair color at afirst time; and performing the detection of the at least one degree ofhair damage at a second time, the first time and the second time beingwithin a predefined time range.
 15. The method according to claim 14,wherein: performing the detection of the hair color at the first timecomprises detecting the portion of light which has interacted with theuser's hair with the first sensor.
 16. The method according to claim 12,further comprising: producing an individual hair treatment product forthe user by utilizing data recorded by the hair condition determiningdevice.
 17. The method according to claim 16, wherein producing theindividual hair treatment product comprises producing the individualhair treatment product specifically designed to reduce the hair damageof the user.
 18. The method according to claim 12, wherein: moving thehair condition determining device along the user's hair comprisesplacing the user's hair between the first area and the second area ofthe hair condition determining device.
 19. The method according to claim18, wherein: the first area and the second area are coupled by aconnecting element.